Bingo-type games are played with predefined bingo cards that each include a number of bingo designations such as Arabic numerals randomly arranged in a desired manner, commonly in a grid. The bingo designations for the cards are selected from a pool of available game designations. In more traditional bingo-type games, the cards are made up of paper or some other suitable material printed with the desired arrangement of bingo designations. These printed cards are purchased by players prior to the start of a game. Once all the cards for a game have been purchased, game designations from the available pool of game designations are selected at random. As the game designations are selected and announced in the game, the players match the randomly selected game designations with the designations printed on their respective card or cards. This matching and marking of matched designations on the bingo card is commonly referred to as “daubing” the card. The player first producing a predetermined pattern of matches between the randomly selected game designations and the printed card designations is considered the winner. Consolation prizes may be awarded to players having cards matched to produce consolation prize patterns at the time of the winning pattern.
There are numerous variations on the traditional bingo game. Some bingo-type games perform a draw to produce a set of game designations prior to the sale of printed bingo cards. These bingo-type games use printed cards like regular printed bingo cards, but with the card face concealed in some fashion. Once a player purchases one of these covered face bingo cards, the player can remove the cover and match the drawn designations to the printed card designations to identify if the matched designations produce some predetermined winning pattern. The first player to redeem a card with the winning pattern ends the game.
Another variation of the traditional bingo game is played with electronic bingo card representations rather than the traditional printed bingo cards. In these bingo-type games, each bingo card is represented by a data structure that defines the various card locations and designations associated with the locations. This bingo-type game is played through player stations connected via a communications network to a central or host computer system. The central computer system is responsible for storing the bingo card representations and distributing or communicating bingo card representations to players at the player stations. The player stations display the bingo cards defined by the card representations and also allow the players to daub or mark designation matches as game designations are announced in the game. A primary advantage of this electronic bingo game is that the games may be played at a much faster pace than is practical with traditional paper bingo. Another advantage of this electronic version of bingo is that the games can be administered and controlled from a remote location and actually played at a number of different bingo establishments.
Traditional bingo games, either played with paper cards or electronic card representations are limited in the manner in which the results of a game may be displayed and in player participation. Yet it is essential that the game retain the basic characteristics of a bingo-type game, namely that the game is played with predefined cards or card representations which the players match or daub against randomly generated game designations.